PLUS: HOCKEY

PLUS: HOCKEY; Bourque Is Expected To Retire Today

Published: June 26, 2001

Ray Bourque, his quest for the Stanley Cup realized, will retire at a news conference scheduled for today.

A source close to the Colorado Avalanche told The Associated Press yesterday that Bourque will announce his retirement after 22 N.H.L. seasons.

The Avalanche said only that Bourque will make an announcement about his hockey career. While the team would not reveal what Bourque, 40, planned to announce, The Denver Post reported that Bourque would retire, primarily for family reasons.

Bourque, the highest-scoring defenseman in N.H.L. history, said previously that he wanted to spend more time with his family. He played nearly 21 seasons in Boston, but he requested a trade to a contender in March 2000 in hopes of winning an N.H.L. championship. He finally got it when the Avalanche beat the Devils for the Stanley Cup earlier this month.

COURT DOESN'T ACT ON PLAYERS' SUIT: The Supreme Court refused to revive claims by former N.H.L. players that they were victims of a conspiracy among the teams and the head of the players' union to keep salaries low.

The court, without making a comment yesterday, let a ruling by a federal appeals court stand in the case. The Philadelphia appeals court ruled last year that the players waited too long to sue.

The players wanted to hold the league and its teams responsible for the actions of Alan Eagleson, the former head of the N.H.L. Players' Association, who served six months in prison for fraud.

The former N.H.L. players Dave Forbes, Rick Middleton, Brad Park, Ulf Nilsson and Doug Smail filed a class-action lawsuit against the N.H.L. and all its individual teams in 1995 on behalf of about 1,000 N.H.L. players who played during Eagleson's tenure.